I'm back!

Happy Mother's Day to all of my Mom friends out there. 
I'm celebrating Mother's Day with a few cherished moments to clear my desk, catch up with email and, for the first time in more than five months, blog. 
How have I not done this since the New Year? 
No use looking back though, it's onward and upward.
I have so many crafty things to share, so many ideas and yes, I'm still menu planning though now I'm obsessed with doing a low-budget option.  I recently read a blog where the family spends $250 or less every month on groceries.  I'm embarrassed to say that we often spend twice that (or more!).  I need to reign in my costs while still focusing on whole foods and eating healthy. 

I do have a lot of ambitious goals for this summer.  We aren't going to be doing a lot of travelling, though it's likely we will go to the beach for a week.  G is on our local swim team which I'm very excited about.  We'll spend most of our summer mornings at the gym and pool.  His age group practices at 11am and my classes are either at 8:30 or 9:30 so we will head out early in the morning, pack a lunch and spend until probably 1 or so at the pool.  We will come home for most of the afternoon and work on a few things around here (more about that later) and then likely head back to the pool in the late afternoon or even after dinner.  Note to self: get the swimmer's ear vinegar mix ready to go!

So here are my summer goals:

• Be active!  I want our TV to be on as little as possible
• Learn! I have set up several weekly "units" for us to spend an hour or so on every day , allowing the kids a chance to explore and giving me the structure I need to actually make it happen.
• Read every day.  G is still not a confident reader, while A is just about there.  I have the "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Days" book and I'm hoping to have both boys reading independently by the end of the summer.
• Write letters to our cousins/friends.  This gives the boys practice writing their letters and forming sentences.
• Work in our garden.  I've planted tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, basil, pumpkins, dill and peppers.  
• Get ahead on Christmas gifts.  I'd love to make as many of our gifts as possible and I'd love to knock out like 60% of them this summer.
• Have our 72 hour kit/bug out bag complete.  Every family needs one.
• Have our will complete.  I'm not the one dragging my feet on this.  We have a the lawyer, we know who we want to be guardians for the kids, now I just need to get the husband on board and to the lawyer's office so this can finally be done.

This is my last summer with G before he's off to Kindergarten and I really want to enjoy it, be as stress free as possible and be as screen free as possible.  Yes, I realise that blogging about being screen-free is a little oxymoronic but  I really would like to focus on happy, quality time with the 14 short weeks we have before school starts again.